International study rewrites dinosaur history

A study published in the prestigious journal Nature fundamentally changes the understanding of the evolution of ceratopsians - the famous "horned dinosaurs" of the Late Cretaceous - and demonstrates that Europe, including the current territory of Romania, played a much more important role than previously thought in the history of this group of dinosaurs. The international team of researchers also included Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zoltan Csiki-Sava, researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics of the University of Bucharest.

For more than 100 years, paleontologists believed that ceratopsians never reached Europe, being limited to Asia and North America. New analyses contradict this classic hypothesis and show that the European Cretaceous fauna was much more diverse than previously assumed. According to a press release from the University of Bucharest, research indicates that ceratopsians were not only present on the European continent, but also evolved their own forms here, adapted to the island environments specific to the European archipelago in the Late Cretaceous.

• The Role of the Ţara Haţegului Geopark

A key part of the fossil material analyzed comes from the Ţara Haţegului UNESCO International Geopark, one of the most important paleontological sites in the world and part of the heritage of the University of Bucharest. Based on fossils discovered in the Sînpetru Formation, in the southern Haţeg Basin, the researchers defined a new genus of dinosaur, Ferenceratops shqiperorum, a species of primitive ceratopsian. The discovery represents a key piece in demonstrating the presence and diversification of ceratopsians in Europe. The new dinosaur was named Ferenceratops shqiperorum in honor of Baron Franz (Ferenc) Nopcsa, a pioneer of paleontology in Ţara Haţegului and one of the leading figures of European paleontological research at the beginning of the 20th century. It was also Nopcsa who discovered the fossil material that today constitutes the holotype of the new species.

• Europe, a possible migration corridor between continents

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zoltan Csiki-Sava emphasizes the major impact of these results on European paleontology: "The discovered fossils show that ceratopsian dinosaurs not only reached the former European archipelago, but also evolved their own forms here, adapted to the island environment. Europe could even have represented an important corridor in the dispersal of these animals between Asia and North America.”

Furthermore, the study shows that some fossils previously considered to belong to rhabdodontids, a group endemic to Europe, are in fact atypical ceratopsians, which requires a reassessment of the classic classifications. The results obtained in Romania are complemented by recent discoveries in Hungary, where much more complete cranial remains of the species Ajkaceratops kozmai were identified. These fossils unequivocally confirm the species' belonging to the ceratopsian group, an affiliation that had been intensely disputed until recently. The researchers point out that even some fossils previously attributed to the herbivorous dinosaur Zalmoxes show ceratopsian features. This suggests that the diversity and identity of herbivorous dinosaurs in the Haţeg Basin must be substantially reconsidered.

The study was coordinated by Prof. Susannah Maidment, from the Natural History Museum in London, and brought together researchers from the UK, Hungary, Germany and Romania. The authors emphasize that the discovery highlights the importance of international collaboration and strengthens the position of the Ţara Haţegului UNESCO International Geopark as a world-class scientific landmark. With these results, Romania reconfirms its essential role in global paleontological research, and the history of the evolution of European dinosaurs enters a new stage of scientific reinterpretation.